Step right up for the fab tour...

One of the strange things about the Beatles is that the further we get from them the bigger they have become.

They still win everything - in all the best-all-time awards - and anything to do with them in terms of memorabilia fetches higher sums every year.

Geographically, it has been much the same. Although worshipped from afar, in places like the USA and Japan, from the moment they split up in 1970 - for some reason at home, even in Liverpool, people were not much bothered. Prophets are, of course, taken as read in their own backyard.

Now Liverpool has caught up - in fact, zoomed ahead - in Beatle-mania. Tomorrow in Liverpool there is likely to be a crowd of some 350,000 Beatles fans enjoying the highlight of this year's Beatle Week - now halfway through - when there will be free live entertainment all day long.

Today, one of the very minor, not to say titchy, events will take place at 2.45pm in the Adelphi Hotel when the group's authorised biographer (moi) will be giving a little talk.

I have never been to a Beatle Week before. I've kept away from such things. But Liverpool's has taken on a life of its own in recent years. It's almost on the scale of the Edinburgh Festival.

It even has its own Fringe.More than 250 bands are there - almost all of them Beatle lookalikes or playalikes from the USA, Japan, Argentina, Sweden, Venezuela, Germany, Brazil and elsewhere. Weird, really, looking at photographs of the different nationalities wearing their Beatles wigs or Sgt Pepper costumes.

Most are full-time professional bands, playing Beatles stuff in countries and towns where the Beatles never went for people who were not alive when the Beatles played.

There are also dozens of exhibitions, lectures and flea markets, spread around 28 venues.The organisers, Cavern City Tours Ltd, have taken over almost every hotel bed for the seven days. More than 175 foreign journalists have arrived.

'It's one of Britain's best-kept secrets,' says Bill Heckle, one of the directors. 'The rest of the world seems to know much more about our week than people at home.'

I think it's because there was a certain apathy in Liverpool in the Sixties when the Beatles left for London. They seemed to forget Liverpool. Now all that's changed. Paul comes back a lot now and he's been a great supporter of us and the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA). Paul's become a born-again Scouse. That's helped.'

Liverpool council, was also at one time not much interested in Beatles fans coming to the city clutching Beatles books and trying to find Beatles addresses. It did begin Beatles Tours in 1981, but when Mersey-side Council disappeared in 1986, they almost ceased. That was when Bill Heckle and co-director Dave Jones took over.

Until 1990, Bill was teaching economics in a local comprehensive school and working part-time as a Beatles guide. Now the company employs 100 people and has become a Beatle industry, owning the rebuilt Cavern Club, organising countless Beatles events. Bill and Dave hope to build their own £9 million, 120-bedroom hotel near the Cavern, to be called Hard Day's Night.

You can now also visit the house at Forthlin Road where Paul used to live and wrote many songs with John. It's owned by The National Trust. A sign of these times that The Trust, usually associated with stately homes, should have bought a council house for us all to gape at.

The gig I'm most looking forward to this weekend is this evening at LIPA where the original Quarrymen are performing.Mostly schoolfriends from Quarry Bank School, John Lennon's very first group were eventually replaced by Paul, George and Ringo.

They went on into history, while the five originals - Pete, Rod, Eric, Len and Colin - became mere footnotes in all the Beatles books.

They went their separate ways in life, some to the dole for a time, one to be a multimillionaire. In 1997, after 40 years apart, they came together again and started performing at Beatles events from Las Vegas to Havana.

So, for anyone desperate to hear 1957 skiffle music, just as it was played, this is your chance.And the strange thing is, the longer they didn't play together, the better they have become . . .

TRAVEL FACTS

For further information on Cavern City Tours call 0151 236 9091. Tours last two hours. Forthlin Road Tours are run by The National Trust and operate Wednesday to Saturday. For further information call 0870 9000 256.